Reading aloud is not a performance, but it helps to treat it a little like one. Children notice when we slow down for the good bits, when we pause before turning the page and when we enjoy it ourselves.
Let the pictures breathe
Picture books tell half their story in the illustrations. Stop and look. Ask what they notice. In Fox and the Very Tall Forest, the fox is hiding on every spread: let them find it before you read the words.
Make the page turn count
Good picture books are built around page turns. A short pause before the turn turns a sentence into a surprise.
Read it again
The fourteenth reading of a favourite book is not a chore; it is how children learn that stories can be relied on. Let them join in with the words they know.
A demo article for the Foliowick theme. The books mentioned are fictional.
